It's Still Summer + Tomato and Beet Salad

School has started and Labor Day weekend came and went... sounds like summer is over.

Except, it is not.  Don't let those shiny, new backpacks and rules about not wearing white fool you.  Summer is alive and well, and I intend to celebrate it a little more.  

It only comes around once a year, after all, and really is the best season. (Ok, maybe it is tied with spring. I sure do enjoy spring as well...)

If you look at a calendar or at the daily weather forecast, you will see that it actually is still summer, at least until September 22.  So I plan on rounding up, to October.  I will start celebrating fall in October.  Which means unlike the other blogs you are seeing out there, you won't see pumpkin and apple recipes popping up yet.  They will come, trust me, but for now I will enjoy the bountiful harvest of tomatoes, bell peppers, and summer squash.  I hope you enjoy them with me.

Long live summer!

PS -- How did I live this long without knowing how DELICIOUS roasted beets are?  They taste nothing like their might-as-well-be-eating-dirt raw/slightly cooked selves.  Expect to see more of these popping up in my recipes!

TOMATO & ROASTED BEET SALAD

From Everyday Food, July/August 2012

SERVES 4  •  PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME:  85 MINUTES

ingredients

• 1 pound scrubbed small beets
• 2 pounds tomatoes, preferably heirloom
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cup crumbled feta
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Seal beets in a foil packet.  Roast on a rimmed baking sheet until tender, 75 minutes.  When cool, rub beets with a paper towel to remove skins; slice.
2. Slice large tomatoes, and halve cherry tomatoes, then arrange with beets on a platter.  Top with feta, cilantro, and olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.

COST: $6.75      COST PER SERVING (4): $1.69

Apologies + Tomato Salad

Dear Friends Who Leave Me Voicemails,
I am sorry I never reply to you.  Actually, I am sorry I never even check your messages but just delete them and call you back when I have time.  I would like to say I have some good excuse, but I don't, other than I simply don't like checking my voice mail.  Sorry.

Dear Other Drivers on the Road,
I am sorry for all the times I wished the CHP upon you when you ticked me off.  I wouldn't like it if you did the same in return... oh wait, I am pretty sure you do do it in return.  Oh well.

Dear Friends Who Invite Me Over,
I am sorry for all the times I brought lame, store bought food to potluck dinners.  I know that you expect more from a woman with a food blog, but it's just so easy to hit up Safeway on the way over...

Dear Digestive Track,
I am sorry for all the times I fed you cheese or popcorn, knowing full well that it would make you miserable, and therefore make me miserable. I apologize for thinking more about the taste buds than I think about you.

Dear College Roommate,
I am sorry that I showed up to your wedding in the wrong colored bridesmaid's dress. You said 'blackberry' and I wrote down 'black', only to find out the day of your wedding that 'blackberry' was code for 'dark purple'.  Oops.  (And thank you for still being my friend, despite that.)

Dear Husband,
I am sorry for all the times I made you sit through The Bachelor with me. I know you have about 1,287,658 things you would rather be doing, but you power through so I can have someone to comment to.  You are a trooper!

And, Meu Amor, while I am at at, I am sorry that I never feed you Brazilian food anymore.  You have given up your country and your language and all the people you knew, and I don't want you to have to give up your food, as well.  I hope this tomato salad can help put us back on the half-American-half-Brazilian track again.  Besides, with fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and lime juice it is delicious and there is no reason not to have this on our plate, regularly.  Kind of like pico de gallo as a side dish...  Yum.

Whew!  It was good to get that all off my chest ;)

// Day 13 of Blog Every Day in May //

BRAZILIAN TOMATO SALAD

SERVES 4  •  PREP TIME: 5 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 5 MINUTES

ingredients

• 3-4 large tomatoes, thinly sliced
• ½ onion, very thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
• juice from 1-2 limes or ½ lemon
• salt, to taste

directions

1.      Mix tomatoes and onions together.  Add cilantro and lime/lemon juice with salt.  Enjoy!

 COST: $3.14       COST PER SERVING (4): $0.79 

Garlic+Cilantro+Gouda Biscuits

Got up, went to work, felt icky, took my temperature, turned around, and headed back home.

TV, books, blankets, tissue, naps... all of those sound good but don't let it fool you.  Sick days suck.

Except when you have the stupidly brilliant (or maybe just stupid) plan to make biscuits because driving one mile to the store to buy bread just sounds like too much work.  And for some reason I forgot that making biscuits is not whipping up brownie mix...

I took Joy the Baker's jalapeno, cheddar, and chive recipe and looked in the fridge.  No cheddar, but I had Gouda.  No chives but I had cilantro.  And no jalapenos, but garlic might just give enough kick, right?

RIGHT.

Worn out, tired, messy, achy, cranky, and temperature warming up... dropped on the couch with a plate of these in my hands.

Totally worth it.

Sick days suck. But these biscuits more than made up for that.

GARLIC, CILANTRO, and GOUDA BISCUITS

Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker

ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 4½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of milk + 1 teaspoon of white vinegar mixed to make buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• ¼ cup cilantro, chopped small
• ½ cup Gouda, cubed
• 1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• Coarse sea salt for topping

directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 of the milk combo and egg. In another small bowl, toss garlic, cilantro, and Gouda together.

3. Add the butter to the flour mixture and use your fingers to work the butter into the flour until the flour resembles coarse meal.  

4. Ad the garlic mixture and mix until well coated.  Create a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the milk and egg mixture all at once. Toss together with a fork, making sure that all of the flour bits are moistened by the buttermilk. Dump the biscuit dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly, just enough to bring the dough together.

5. Pat the dough until about 1 inch thick.  Cut the dough into 2 inch squares. Gather the dough scrapes, pat into a new circle and cut more squares. Repeat until all of the dough has been used.  (You can use a round biscuit cutter if you are fancy like that.)

6. Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheets, brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle them with the sea salt. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown on top. If you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. You can eat them straight from there the next day, or reheat in a 350-degree oven until warmed through.

 COST: $4.89           COST PER SERVING (12): $0.41

*Yes, you might have seen these pictures before.  Like I said, I was sick.  I think it is a good excuse to recycle ;)

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My New Fave -- Sweet Potato Tacos

Move over tortellini with butternut squash and sage, there's a new favorite in town!

From sweet potato hater to lover like that *finger snap*.

You cannot thank me for this, though.  All the credit goes out to Jess at CookSmarts.  She is a brilliant one, I tell ya, and if you are looking at this thinking, "Man, if only I could cook," look no further because she is here to help.  With her videos, easy recipes, and all these handy kitchen tips, you can't help be leave her site a little bit more handy in the kitchen.  Where was she when I needed her two years ago?!

Oh well, she is here now and so are these tacos.  Which I have had six of in the past twenty-four hours.  Dinner last night, lunch today, and now dinner tonight.  I guess you really can't have too much of a good thing...

Click here for the recipe for Sweet Potato Tacos.  I did it word for word, minus the cayenne pepper, and choosing Greek yogurt for my dairy.  Leave the dairy off and you've got a great vegan plate. And now I am hoping that my husband will say, "Yes, we can have them again, for the third time this week..."

COST: $5.97    COST PER SERVING (4): $1.50

Bringing in the Sunshine... (Avocado Pineapple Salsa)

I love Summer time.  I know it isn't officially Summer as far as the whole tilt-of-the-Earth goes, but for all practical purposes, it is Summer.  Memorial Day Weekend?  Check.  End of the school year?  Check.  Fun plans and nice weather?  Check and check. So, being "Summer", I have the perfect thing to share with you.

I happened upon this SIMPLE recipe when I had a gluten-intolerant friend come to visit and needed a way to dress up some chicken without killing her.  It was intended to feed us for that specific purpose but we loved it and we have had it many times since then.  And right now is the perfect time for it as the ingredients (mainly avocado and pineapple) are easy to find at this time of the year.  Sometimes I use a fresh pineapple, but that yields a lot so this time I went for the canned rounds and just chopped them up.  Make sure you get the kind in pineapple juice and not syrup.  Yuck yuck yuck.  Who wants their fruit swimming in sticky sugar for the entirety of its shelf life?  Not me.

Here is what you do: 

1. Take the four ingredients above, dice, and throw in a bowl.  (I used 1 avocado, 1/2 can of pineapple, 1/2 red onion, and 1 small handful of cilantro.)
2. Mix with the juice of a lemon or a lime.
3. Add a dash of salt.
4. Enjoy.

"But what should I enjoy it with, Tiffany?"  Glad you asked.  We have had it on top of chicken, on top of fish, and by the spoonful.  No joke.  It is hard to keep this stuff around.  I think crackers or chips would love to be wearing this finery as well.  Basically, it is just all around good, so enjoy it anyway you possibly can.  And give me some of your great ideas so I can expand my horizons, alright?  Alright.

Happy Summer, Friends!

Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (for the top of fish or chicken) or one medium bowl (for dip)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 avocado, diced
• 1/2 can of pineapple rounds, diced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix.
2. Enjoy.  (Simple like that.)

Cost: $3.83                 Cost per Serving (4): $0.96

Top on fried fish, add a side salad (last night's dinner) and it comes to $3.02 per serving.

Brazilian Tomato Salad

Five simple ingredients.  That's all it takes to make my husband the happiest man alive. 

Yup, tomatoes with some onion, cilantro, and a little bit of lime juice and salt are the way to this man's heart. 

And I totally get it.  I mean, my idea of salad had always been lettuce/spincach/arugula with some veggies and dressing on top, but this is so light and so fresh there is no dressing needed.  And you can skip the lettuce and get straight to the good stuff... tomatoes.

Unless you don't like tomatoes.  Then I guess it isn't the good stuff.  But if you do, well, you need to try this.  We had it with a plate of rice and beans and some ground beef/veggie mixture and I just mixed it all up... so. incredibly. GOOD.  I went back to get some more but there was none.  Guess who ate it all?!

Happy me -- I still have some tomatoes at home.  You know what I will be having more of tonight ;)

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Roma tomatoes, sliced
• 1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 thin slices of onion, cut if quarters
• Salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Chop, slice, cut, mix, ENJOY :)

COST: $1.10       COST PER SERVING (4): $0.28

Soooo cheap!

Baked Eggs in Chunky Tomato Sauce (Vegetarian)

If you are a lover of veggies, you have come to the right place.

Onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and garlic... cook them up, drop eggs in the mixture, bake, and top with goat cheese and cilantro.  Ta-da!  It is really that simple, and quite amazing actually.  This is a recipe I would have never thought of myself, which makes me appreciate all of those cooks in the food magazine kitchens all the more.

 Let me warn you, however -- your house will smell like onion and bell pepper long after the food is gone.  As I was driving to work I kept smelling this oniony-smell so I rolled down the window to see if it was coming from outside, and then I realized that it was I that smelled like onion.  Or rather, my clothes did.  Clothes that were tucked away in my closet while I was cooking.  Curse of a small apartment, I guess.  At least it wasn't the smell of fish, right?

This brilliant recipe comes from the January/February 2012 issue of Everyday Food by Martha Stewart.

• Prep Time 20 minutes
• Total Time 45 minutes
• Yield Serves 4

 

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange), stemmed, seeded, and diced small
• 1 large yellow onion, diced small
• 3 garlic cloves, minced  (I did six.  We love garlic.)
• 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 2 1/2 ounces baby spinach (2 1/2 cups)
• Red-pepper flakes (optional)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 8 large eggs
• 4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium. Add bell peppers and onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and cook 3 minutes. Stir in spinach and pinch of red-pepper flakes, if using. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Transfer sauce to four 14-ounce gratin dishes or a 2-quart shallow baking dish. With the back of a large spoon, make 4 wells in sauce and crack 2 eggs into each. Bake until whites are set but yolks are still runny, about 25 minutes, rotating dishes halfway through. To serve, top with goat cheese and cilantro.

Cost: $8.67                    Cost Per Serving (4): $2.17